


Garcia is the Self-Appointed Leader of the Protecting-Her-Co-Worker's Comission

by DarkHorseAsh



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Coming Out, Cupcakes, Garcia is the best coworker ever, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Torture, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2018-11-21 04:08:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11349552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkHorseAsh/pseuds/DarkHorseAsh
Summary: Penelope Garcia comes to work at the BAU and discovers fairly quickly that while her co-workers are incredibly smart, they have no ability to protect themselves mentally.  She endeavours to change that.





	1. Chapter 1

It isn’t even her third week on the job before Penelope Garcia realizes the kind of people she is working with. They’re the hardest-working people she has ever met, dedicated to a fault and brave to a capacity she knows she can not begin to understand, and she finds herself stunned at how quickly she had become attached to these people. But their faults were also painfully on display for her, as someone who was more...human, in a sense, than they could claim to be. It was clear that absolutely none of them ever had anyone that they were really...family with. No one they could go to after a long day. Som she decided well, we can’t have that! ‘So, she made a decision and one day she walked into the ten a.m. case briefing with a stack of cards.

“Alright everyone, listen up, before we start, Hotch has said I can make this announcement.” Hotch raised his eyebrows since he had not said anything like that but he was intrigued so he let her continue to talk. “I have decided that I am going to have a full open-door/phone policy. So, if you need me, just call or show up at my door, ok?” She bounces around the table, handing everyone a card before sitting. She doesn’t expect them to come, thinks them too stupidly blind to their own emotions, and too stubborn, to do so. But one by one, they do come. 

Spencer is, unsurprisingly, the first. Looking back, she would have guessed it would be him, he feels it the most out of anyone who isn’t her. And even that is a long time coming, so long she has almost forgotten that she had promised them if they ever needed something to just show up on her doorstep so when she opens her door and finds Spencer on the other side, drenched from the rain and shivering so hard it looks painful, she can’t help but feel like maybe she is woefully unprepared to deal with this. But he’s looking at her with absolute terror and she can’t well leave him on the doorstep, so she puts on her biggest smile and guides him inside. “Hey, Spencer. Come in. I was just making some coffee.” She wasn’t, of course, it was far too late at night for coffee but the young genius didn’t think it was ever so she puts on a pot and goes back to him, becoming increasingly alarmed when she sees he hasn’t moved from the spot she had left him in. “Spencer?” She questions softly, gently, genuinely afraid when the genius just shifts slightly to look at her and for the first time, she can see the tears in his eyes, the quivering of his shoulders not caused by the rain. She had read the last mission report, of course, heard how Reid had ended the man with one shot to the head, but she didn’t understand why that would cause terror. “Alright, cmon.” She murmurs quietly, nudging Reid back to her bedroom where she rummages in the closet for her largest pair of sweatpants and sweatshirts. Thankfully, she’s a person who likes them big, so they’re ok, as she carefully all but forces Reid out of his sweater vest, shirt, and pants, wishing he would be a little more helpfully as she carefully wrestles him into the sweatshirt and gets them both back to the living room, ignoring the now hot coffee as she sits down next to Reid, who is still shaking.

“Hey, Spencer, hun?” he finally looks up, eyes blank. “What’s the matter?” Spencer shutters slightly, curling in on himself as he whimpers. “N-n-nightmares. All week. B-back there.” he whines quietly. Garcia’s heart clenches painfully at the terror in his eyes even if she doesn’t fully understand why he is so afraid. “Back where, Spencer?” He shifts, hesitating softly before speaking again. “When H-hotch had to kick me, it reminded me of high school. I was twelve I was practically half their age and that never stopped them, especially when they realized no one was going to notice. My mother sure never did, she wasn’t...well, she wasn’t lucid very much.” He’s staring at his feet with increasing levels of tremors. “And I know hotch would never do...what they did to me. God, I know that. But they, well, enjoyed kicking me around. Hitting me. Slamming me into things. It..jogged memories. Especially at night. I can’t sleep.” He whispers softly, tears silently running down his cheeks as Garcia makes a split-second decision, reaching out and pulling the young man close, knowing she had made a good call as he clung to her, head buried in her shoulder and he whimpered and sobbed. Garcia held him tightly, wondering silently how long it had been since he had had a literal shoulder to lean on. It seemed possible that he never had, and that thought made her press him closer, rocking them both slightly as she runs one hand up and down his back, gently, as she murmurs comfortingly to him. 

“Spencer? Are you ok?” She asks softly, once his pained sobbing has turned into sniffles. He nods against her shoulder, slowly shifting so he can pull away and look at her. “T-thanks, Garcia. I should go.” Garcia automatically shakes her head, searching for a reason. “Actually, I still haven't even started that star trek season you gave me for my birthday since I’ve been waiting to watch it with you so you can explain it. And I have cookies.” She bustles off to the kitchen, not giving him a chance to protest as she grabs a few of the cookies she had made earlier in the day, although she is pretty surprised to come back in and see he had put it on. They split the cookies, they’re good, and Garcia can’t help but smile at the fact Spencer is asleep before the end of the first episode. She wakes him up when he starts screaming three hours later, though he is never truly awake, and lets him spend the rest of the night curled up next to her. 

Spencer wakes up the next morning not screaming, which in his opinion makes this a better morning than the rest of the week. Garcia is bustling around the kitchen, filling two mugs with coffee. “Hey, Spencer. Hotch called, an emergency of some kind. We can stop at your place on the way so you can change; I’ll drive you.” And so they head off to work, Garcia, and Spencer, and neither of them mentions that day for a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

Garcia takes to taking care of her family even more after what happened with Elle, determined not to have another one do something stupid. She brings them food when they’ve spent all day on paperwork or creating a profile and haven’t eaten, shuts the wifi off when they all need sleep, and literally will drag Reid, and Hotch, and Gideon out of the building. Not that she wouldn’t with the others, but they seem to actually have the ability to make themselves go home on an occasional basis. She watches Reid do physics magic, researches bird to discuss them with Gideon, flirts with Morgan, shops with J.J. and Emily, and sends Hotch pictures of his wife and son at least twice a day. She knows their birthdays, and she’s the one who decides who the hell cares if we are adults, I’m making cake! And the one who finds the best gifts. But it still wasn’t long after Elle had left that Morgan was accused of murder.

The team finally came back from Chicago, and they weren’t talking. Hotch threw the file on her desk and told them to go home and do the paperwork tomorrow. She doesn’t (most of the others don’t, either) she sits and reads the file until she can’t see it because of the tears in her eyes because god, how badly she wants to beat that BASTARD into the ground. She remembers the haunted look in Morgan’s eyes when she had met the team at the door, when they had come back. So she dries her tears and rummages around in the drawers of her desk for, well, anything. She comes up with literally nothing, which is a bit irritating because she has no idea what to do what do you do to someone when all of their demons are exposed to the world what the hell can you do? 

She shuts off the wifi, shoves Hotch and Gideon out the door, pushes more coffee into Spencer’s hand, gets J.J. to give Spencer a ride home, and grabs her own keys. She drives fast, stopping to buy some Chinese before making her way to Morgan’s apartment, grabbing her laptop bag and her food bags, and strolls casually up to the door. Morgan opens it on the second knock, looking at her incredulously. “Garcia? What’re you doing here?” She just smiles, elbowing past him and dropping the food on a table. “I have chinese and good movies, so I hope you have some beer.” Morgan smiles slightly, grabbing the chinese that she had left there and nodding towards the kitchen. Garcia bustles over there, grabbing plates and two beers and going back to the living room, to where Morgan is going through the movies she has on her laptop and she carefully divides the food between the plates. She doesn’t mention the redness in his eyes, he doesn’t mention how she can’t fully hide the pity in her eyes. They get through two movies before he starts yawning, head resting against his chest, clearly exhausted. “Derek, love, sleep.” Garcia says quietly, nudging him with her shoulder. He sharply shakes his head, fear glistening in his eyes, and she understands. “Cmon, handsome, I’ll wake you up if you have a nightmare I promise.” He hesitates, then nods, moving so he is curled up on the couch next to Garcia. She carefully spreads a blanket over him, kicking off her shoes and pulling off her coat, raiding his closet for sweatpants and a t-shirt before sitting down next to his sleeping form, closing her eyes and settling in for a long night. 

Garcia had REALLY thought that they had all been doing fairly ok emotionally recently, after the Morgan-in-Chicago disaster. There had been hard cases, sure, but nothing too out there that she didn’t have confidence that her team could manage it. Losing George The Evil Serial Killer had been brutal, but they had gotten past it. And then, then Georgia happened, and literally everyone fell apart.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A longer-ish chapter! Go me! Trigger warnings for drug use (not really talked about, just referenced) and nightmares

When Garcia had been called out to Georgia, she had been struggling to keep HERSELF together, but one look at her team had her moving much more effectively than she had been seconds before. They looked ten times worse than she felt, and she knew none would look any better until they had Reid back. So she stuffed it away and pushed through the fear and they found him he was alive he was ok thank god. Unfortunately, her work was only just getting started.

 

She and JJ went back to a hotel that night, Hotch and Gideon and Morgan refused to leave Spencer’s side and Emily was at the station filling out some of the mountain of paperwork that they needed to get through before they could set off for home. Everyone wanted to get home as soon as possible, and apparently the doctors were going to let Spencer out the next day if he didn’t have any hidden injuries that they had not yet noticed. They got two rooms, which ended up being side by side, so they slowly walked upstairs to their rooms. Neither said a word, as they separated into their individual rooms. Garcia tossed her bag into the corner, only now realizing how much she was shaking. She let out a choked whimper, remembering the agony in Spencer’s eyes, and pressed her head against her chest to stop herself from crying, before turning her attention to opening up her laptop and setting about planning things. 

It was around two hours later when she heard a terrified scream, jolting her out of her finishing ordering Chinese food and causing her to look up, realizing where the sound had come from. JJ. Dropping her laptop on her bed, Garcia grabbed her key and took off for JJ’s room, grabbing a small pouch out of her makeup kit. JJ was still screaming, and Garcia banged hard on the door in a desperate attempt to get her attention, but the screams didn’t change, so Garcia quickly opened the pouch and slipped out her lockpicks. They had been a joke, a gift from Elle, but she had found lockpicking to be quite fun and so she had kept them. The lock clicks, and Garcia hurries in, letting out a noise of fear when she sees JJ thrashing on the bed, hurrying across the room to shake the smaller blond, ignoring how JJ turns from lashing out at nothing to striking out at her in terror. Garcia was fairly impressed at how strong JJ was, glad when the blond finally stopped lashing out, her scared eyes locking on Garcia’s as she whimpered “P-penelope?” Garcia nodded, her eyes gentle as she kicked of her shoes and sat herself down on the bed, her heart breaking as JJ whimpered slightly, looking smaller and more scared than Garcia had ever seen her as the young woman props herself up, whimpering slightly as she moves. “K-k-keep seeing him d-die.” She whispers weakly, tears silently running down her cheeks as Garcia’s heart silently breaks. Garcia opens her arms, letting JJ press her head into her shoulder, her tears soaking her shirt. Garcia is surprised when she realizes she is crying, too, pressing her head against JJ’s shoulder and trying to get the picture of Spencer out of her eyes. They fall asleep like that, clinging to each other for comfort because god, he was dead before he wasn’t. 

They go home the next day. She goes to work, wanting to get her computers back where they belonged from when she had brought them down to Georgia, but she also wanted to make sure the others actually went home. It was clear none planned to anytime soon, except Hotch, who told them to take the day off, and JJ, who still couldn’t seem to face the team. So Garcia made coffee for the others, Gideon and Emily and Morgan, went and bought them food that she basically had to force into them, and literally dragged Emily and Gideon to their cars before going back to Morgan, since she had only had two hands to drag people with. “Cmon, Derek. We’re going to go check on Reid.” he looks up in surprise. “You’re not sending me home?” Garcia shrugs, tugging him to his feet. “I call NOT driving.” Morgan snorts, grabbing his keys and bag and leading Garcia to the car. She sits down in the passenger seat, forcing Morgan to stop at a grocery so she can buy Chicken Soup and Crackers (because no one can convince her that they don’t work for injuries and illnesses), before the reach Spencer’s house. Morgan pulls out his key, since they all have each other’s in case of emergencies. Garcia rolls her eyes, nudging him to one side and knocking. Morgan is twitching and nervous next to her, and when she hears soft whimpering, she nods and he opens the door, both of them hurrying inside. Morgan goes straight towards the bathroom, Garcia goes to put the soup down in the kitchen before following Morgan, hearing his gasp of horror. 

Reid was slumped on the floor of the bathroom over the toilet, his sides heaving for breath. Morgan stood a few feet away, horror in his eyes. “What do we do?” He breathed, staring at the boy. Garcia understood in a moment. Withdrawal. Damn it why did we leave him alone! She nudged Morgan in the direction of the bedroom, or at least where she assumed it was, muttering quietly, “Blanket, sweatshirt, sweatpants, trash can, aspirin, water, and put as many pillows on the bed as you can find to use to keep his ribs from hurting when he lays down.” Morgan nods mutely, taking off in that direction. She hoped he would take a minute to calm himself down, because him panicking wasn’t going to help anything. She moved carefully, kneeling next to Spencer who seemed to only notice her for the first time then. “G-g-garcia.” he whimpers, sounding agonized, the pain absolutely breaking her heart as she runs her fingers through his sweaty hair. “It h-h-hurts.” She finds herself nodding, pain clenching as he starts retching again, and she moves carefully, wrapping an arm around his chest to try and stabilize his ribs. “Shh, shh, Spencer, it’s ok kiddo. You’re going to be ok. Just breathe, buddy. You’ve gotta breathe.” His eyes flick up at her, panic in them, but then she moves to slip her fingers back through his hair. He finally stops throwing up, so Garcia carefully pulls him so he is leaning against her, using one arm to keep his ribs fairly steady and the other to hold the shaking boy close. “It’s ok, kiddo. You’re going to be fine.” She entirely ignores the fact that her clothes are getting covered in sweat and vomit, ignores how his hands dig tightly into her as he grips her tightly. 

Morgan slips back in, looking steadier than he had. “Alright, buddy, let’s get you in bed.” He kneels down next to them, carefully making sure Spencer could see him. “Ok, bud, here’s how this is going to work. We’re going to get some aspirin into you, to lower this fever, and get you into some clean clothes and your bed. That sound good?” Spencer nods sluggishly, so Morgan carefully brings the water to his mouth, moving far more gently than he usually did. Spencer whined weakly as he swallowed the pills, sipping at the water for another moment before turning to rest his head weakly on Garcia’s shoulder. Morgan gently manipulated the shirt and pants off of Spencer, without actually making him move, which was fairly impressive. He was still shaking violently. Morgan grabbed a washcloth, wetting it and moving to clean Spencer up. “I can do it.” Garcia whispers softly, but Morgan shakes his head sharply. “He’s my little brother. I’ve got it.” His eyes were full of anger, anger towards the man who had caused this in the first place. He moved gently, washing the sweat and vomit from the thin young man’s skin. Spencer barely reacts, his eyes sluggishly moving to look at Morgan for a moment. Morgan flinches every time Spencer makes a noise of pain as he coaxes the boy into a sweatshirt and pants, before crouching down on his other side. “Alright, buddy. Lets get you to bed.” Spencer focuses his dark eyes on Morgan, slowly nodding. “W-w-wait. M-m-my jacket pocket. Please, get r-rid of them.” Morgan moves across the room to where Spencer’s jacket lay discarded, pulling out the vials of Dilaudid and swearing softly under his breath. “I’m s-sorry.” Spencer whimpered, causing Derek to spin around. “Oh, hey, no, buddy, no. I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at them. I’m so proud of you for telling us, kid. Promise.” Spencer relaxes, eyes half closed as he leans into Garcia’s grip. 

“Alright, let’s get you to bed.” Morgan murmurs, arm moving around Spencer’s waist, going to help him up, but the boy let out a sharp cry of pain as his body buckles. “H-h-hurts! Please, d-don’t, it hurts.” Morgan nods, carefully using both arms to lift Spencer up, holding him carefully. The boy latches onto him, head buried into his shoulder as Morgan carefully walks to the bedroom, relieved that Garcia flipped on the light because he knew how scared Spencer was of the dark. They carefully settle him on the bed, using the pillows to get him comfortable. Garcia ducks into the hallway, but as soon as Morgan moves towards the door, Spencer lets out a terrified cry. “N-n-no please.” Morgan turns to see him, and the young man is struggling to prop himself up to reach for him. Morgan hurries back across the room, gently nudging the boy so he is laying down again. “Hey, buddy, it’s ok. What’s wrong?” Spencer whimpered softly, latching on to Morgan’s wrist. “D-don’t leave, please? D-don’t leave me alone.” Morgan’s heart silently breaks, so he just nods as he kicks off his shoes. “Ok, kiddo. I won’t leave. It’s ok, little brother. It’s ok.” He settles on the bed, surprised when Spencer all but crawls onto him, basically using him as a pillow. Spencer wasn’t usually a fan of physical contact. Morgan carefully drapes an arm over him, tucking the blanket up around the younger man and running his fingers through his hair. 

Garcia pokes her head in a few hours later, smiling sadly when she sees Morgan comforting a shaking Reid, rubbing the small man’s back as he threw up, soothing him under his breath. She can’t hear what he is saying but she can see the much more than normal gentleness in his eyes. She goes to find a blanket, smiling when she goes back in ten minutes later and sees that they’re both asleep, tucking the blanket over Spencer, since he is resting on Morgan’s lower body and that way both can be covered at least mostly. 

The next two days were impossibly hard. Spencer was awake almost every hour, either dry heaving and shaking from withdrawal or screaming in terror from nightmares. Morgan hadn’t left his side for more than two minutes to use the bathroom, something that really, truly surprised Garcia. She knew that Morgan saw Spencer as his little brother, but she had never seen him care so much. It was the start of the third day when it finally seemed to be a little better. Morgan woke up at seven and realized he hadn’t been up since three, glancing down and smiling in relief when he finds Spencer still asleep, his head resting in the crook of Morgan’s neck. Garcia poked her head in and smiled (she may have gotten a ton of photos of Morgan and Reid, in the less awful moments). Spencer stirred, groaning weakly against Morgan’s chest. “Derek?” he asks softly, shifting weakly. Morgan nods, propping them both up slightly. “Right here, little brother. You feeling better?” Spencer’s eyes focus on him much more quickly than the days before as he nods, relief in his eyes. “So much better. Withdrawal lasts between seven and fourteen days, but the worst of the effects are generally in the first few days, so I should be feeling better in the next few days. Can we go to the living room, maybe?” Morgan nods, carefully moving so he is standing and helping Spencer up. The boy grimaced as he moved, leaning heavily on Morgan as they slowly walked out to the living room. Garcia bustled around the kitchen, coming back with three bowls of warm chicken soup. “Alright here we go. Morgan, do not say you aren’t hungry you haven’t eaten in days.” Spencer glanced over, looking guilty, as he started to speak, but Morgan shook his head. “Don’t, kid. I didn’t care, and don’t you dare apologize.” Spencer nodded, hesitantly looking at the food, and Morgan’s eyes soften. “Just try, little brother. Even a little will help your body have a bit more energy to feel better.” Spencer nodded, carefully sipping at his soup as Garcia turns on the news and Morgan devours two bowls of the hot soup. Neither one can stop glancing at Spencer, just to make sure. He is safe.

They all go back to work three days later. Hotch tells Spencer not to, but he somehow argues his way into it and gets himself back there, flipping through files. Garcia knows none of them are ok, she spends the first week back by forcing three meals a day into all of them, as well as making coffee far more times than could be healthy. So, she made up boxes. She gave them all hot coco and coffee and a warm blanket and snuggly socks, but carefully specialized the boxes for each of them. She got Gideon two bird watching books and a new pair of binoculars, Hotch two interesting true crime books, a new law writing pad thing with a pen, and a stuffed toy for his son. She got Emily two books in arabic the newest team member had mentioned wanting and a travel chess set, and JJ a cute book about a dog, a framed picture of the team, and two romcom books. Morgan and Spencer were the hardest, but she got Morgan two t-shirts she thought he would like and two sports movies, and Spencer a book on chess strategy and a new messenger bag, since he had complained a few days before about his breaking. She left the boxes on their desks, so when they all got there (before seven A.M., crazy people) they would find them. She denies involvement but they all know it’s her. And when she can feel their smiles are real for the first time since Georgia, that makes it worth it. Garcia quietly prays that nothing ever happens like Georgia again. And, for a while, it doesn’t.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aaand back to short again.

Gideon leaves, but then they are all watching each other. Morgan pulls Reid aside when he sees him struggling, forces food into him when he himself remembers (which isn’t often), sits and listens to him ramble without asking him to stop. Garcia brings in baked goods, actually remembers that they all need to eat, and quietly hates Gideon for leaving them. Prentiss plays chess with Reid, distracting them both at least a little. Hotch locks himself in his office, buries himself in work, and pretends he hadn’t lost his best friend (at least, one of them) until Morgan steals his key and JJ steals his keyboard and mouse, and Garcia turns off the wifi and the three of them literally drag him to his house. But somehow, they make it and rebuild, piece by piece, until they all are functional. Ish. 

Of course, Garcia never expected Hotch to be the next one to need some form of smothering with kindness, as she had recently been debating calling it. She hadn’t actually been there when he had been served with divorce papers, but she had heard about it only minutes later from JJ and Emily. She formulates her plan quickly, stopping only to buy beer and italian (she knew Aaron loved Italian food more than anything else, even if he complained no one could make it as good as Rossi did) before showing up on his doorstep. 

He opened his door on the first knock, sighing when he sees her. “I appreciate it, Penelope, but I am fine.” She raises her eyebrows, and the Italian and beer. “I’ve got the second best Italian food in the city, beer, and there’s a marathon of a crime series, which I’ve heard you and Morgan discussing liking to watch so you can mock how wrong it is, starting in twelve minutes.” Hotch almost smiles, moving to let her inside as she calmly follows him to rummage around in the kitchen for plates and forks. There’s sad amusement in Hotch’s eyes as he follows. “You said second best?” Garcia smirks slightly, nodding as she finishes dishing out the food. “Well I wasn’t well going to ask agent rossi to make some.” Hotch really does laugh, taking the plate that is shoved at him as Garcia goes to flip through the TV channels. “Here it is, let us see how inaccurate it is.”

Three hours later, they are both cracking up at yet another bad thing in the most recent episode they watched, even though it is now pushing midnight. “You’re welcome to the guest room for the night, Garcia.” Hotch offers, much more life in his dark eyes than there had been when she had come to his doorstep, which in her opinion meant she had done her job right. “It’s pretty late to be driving home.” Garcia nods, following Hotch upstairs and ducking into his room long enough to steal a sweatshirt and sweatpants, to sleep in, and wishing her boss good night before going to the guest room and flopping down on the bed, after texting the rest of the team to assure them that Hotch seemed to be at least slightly OK. Plugging her phone in, she curled up and complimented herself on a job well done.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me, updating like a functional human who has enough hours in the day!! I hope you like this one.

As unprepared as she was for Hotch to need a hand, she was about a hundred times less prepared for Rossi to need anything. They hadn’t known each other for long at that point, so when he came back from his twenty year old case and ignored the files in his office, just going home with Hotch, who had point blank ordered his best friend not to go home alone, something that had raised Garcia’s eyebrows. But she didn’t comment, turning her attention to figuring out what the hell do you do for someone you don’t know all that well? She considers this for several minutes (and asks Morgan for ideas, but he rolls his eyes dramatically and doesn’t comment) before framing a picture of the four of them (Rossi and the three kids, taken before they had left) and putting it on his desk along with a book on duck hunting, a stuffed chocolate lab, (Since Aaron had mentioned once that Rossi had such a dog) and a giftcard for the coffee shop they all went to. She knew he had plenty of money but hey, it was the thought that counted, right? 

She was proved right the next day, when Rossi came down to her office and awkwardly stood her doorway until she noticed him. “Oh, Agent Rossi, hello.” He gave a jerky nod, before saying, fairly quietly, looking far more nervous than she had seen him yet, “Thank you. For...the picture. And the other stuff.” He ducked out, leaving a smiling Garcia in her office. Progress. She decided. At least that time, she had not been in the middle of a shower with another FBI employee. Rossi was someone Garcia hadn’t figured out how to read yet. He was quieter than she had expected, often almost surprisingly so. She had read his books (they all had, even if they hadn’t admitted it quite as excitedly as Reid) and heard his lectures and they were very different than the man she had worked with for the last little while. Here he was reserved, not in a way like his first case with them where he just hadn’t wanted to work with them, but just, in a way that made it seem like he didn’t want to put himself forward after the way the group had responded to him the first way. Garcia wasn’t a fan of THAT, because in her opinion the team was her family and therefore it was definitely not ok if one of their number didn’t feel free to communicate. So, Garcia did what she always did; called a family meeting. In this case, she sent out a text to everyone but Rossi (she felt bad, but inviting him felt like a bad idea too, this was about him) telling them to be at her house at five pm the next day. They all grumbled and griped, but they showed up at her door, exchanging pleasantries and Chinese food before settling down on the couch. 

“Garcia, want to tell us why you summoned us? Which, for the record, I don’t think you can do.” Hotch mutters under his breath, causing all of them to laugh. “This is Garcia, she can do whatever she wants.” Morgan rolls his eyes dramatically, before turning his attention back to Garcia. “Well, baby girl?” Garcia sighs, standing so she can face the others. “I don’t know about you all, but it doesn’t seem to me that we have been doing a very good job with letting Rossi actually be a member of our team. Every time I turn around, it’s one of you guys saying something about him not being a good team member, or not being a good agent, or being impossible to work with, or something else.” Here Reid cuts her off, raising his hand slightly as he opens his mouth but Garcia doesn’t give him a chance to speak. “Yes, Pumpkin, you haven’t done that, but the rest of our little family have not, except maybe Hotch.” They all glance guiltily at each other as they realize how true her observations were. “So, obviously I am not going to sit by and watch this, and I happened to read in his file that his birthday is this weekend soo…” Hotch moans dramatically, causing the rest of them to laugh. “You want us to throw Dave a birthday party? Are you insane?” Garcia smirks slightly as she nods, her eyes bright and cheerful. “Well, more like me to throw it and you all to show up.” They whine and complain, except Hotch, who knows better than to try, and Reid, who will literally agree to anything for cake, but finally they all agree that they will show up and play nice. Garcia sets about trying to figure out what to do, but three days before Sunday, his birthday, she still has no ideas, so she goes to Hotch.

“Hotch, I need a favor.” Hotch sighed as he looked up from the file he had been staring at for the last five minutes without actually seeing any of the words. Garcia studied him for a moment before sighing. “Well, two favors.” Knowing that if he didn’t respond she would keep going, he put the file down and gestured at the chair in front of his desk. “This better not be about the party you seem insistent on organizing for Dave.” Garcia gave him a guilty look, which caused Hotch to really look like he was considering banging his head against something. Garcia shoved a plate of cookies that she had been holding onto his desk and in his direction, eyes bright and cheerful. “Cmon, boss man, you know you wanna help our favorite author out.” Hotch didn’t respond to that, but he did gesture for her to keep talking.”

“Well, it’s only like three days till Sunday and I don’t...well…” Garcia groaned, looking embarrassed. “I don’t know what he likes. At all.” Hotch smirked slightly, but the cookies smelled good and so he decided to at least give her a bit of help. “Well, firstly, absolutely no jumping out at him if you don’t want to get shot.” Garcia raised her eyebrows slightly, studying the man before giving a careful nod. “Alright...I’ll make a note of that in big red letters and underlined to make sure Morgan notices it.” They both laughed slightly, and Hotch thought for a moment before continuing. “Let Reid and Emily do the cooking and baking, she’s the only one who can make good enough Italian food. Chocolate cake. And for gifts, well, figure it out. And I’d suggest alcohol, too. Scotch.” 

Garcia looks up from where she has been writing all this down and nods carefully. “Thank you, sir.” She calls over her shoulder as she bounds out of the office, Hotch watching her bemusedly, opening his desk to glance at the already wrapped package before carefully closing it and going back to his file, munching on one of the cookies. 

They were all pretty sure that Garcia was even bouncier than usual. Morgan and Reid had been put on streamer duty, which meant Morgan hanging them up and Reid telling him how they weren’t straight and giving facts about birthdays. Emily and JJ were setting out the food Emily had made. Hotch had been put in charge of warning them when Rossi was almost there, because while they had been VERY CLEAR about not jumping out (Garcia didn’t want her family shot again) they still wanted to see his surprise at the “Happy Birthday Rossi” banner hanging from the ceiling. Hotch ducked in, as Morgan finally finished and hurried to his spot next to Emily and Garcia, who was grinning excitedly as Rossi entered the room. 

Morgan looked like it was impossibly hard for him not to be jumping out, even under the threat of being shot, but he restrained himself to give a sharp wave in the man’s direction. It was amusingly similar to how Reid greeted people. Emily and JJ were both excitedly grinning at him. Hotch had both hands in his pockets, eyebrows raised in amusement. Rossi looked around, a real smile curling the edges of his mouth as he looked at them. No one moved for a moment, before Hotch did, walking forward to embrace his friend. “I plead not being a part of this.” They all laugh as they look around Hotch’s dining room. Rossi sniffs the air, grinning. “Emily cooked?” 

Garcia nods, happily leading the way to the table and sitting, grinning as the other women sit on either side of him and food (as well as alcohol) gets passed around. Rossi looked more relaxed than most had ever seen him, grinning slightly when Morgan or Garcia made jokes, going along with Reid when he was rambling about things. Hotch looked way more relaxed than usual, digging into his pasta and garlic bread. Garcia was practically bouncing up and down once she had cleared away the plates, swatting at Morgan when he had volunteered to help before bringing over the gifts that everyone had brought. 

Rossi’s head shot up, looking at the others with something akin to shock. He half turned to look at Hotch, who grinned slightly at his old friend. Morgan was having enough of this, and nudged the box he had gotten closer to rossi. “Cmon, I want to see if I did a good job picking this.” Rossi nods, taking the box and quickly unwrapping it, laughing softly when he pulled out the FBI t-shirt and the bottle of scotch. Good scotch. Garcia gave him a couple of newer psychology books and a box of homemade cupcakes. Emily and JJ had teamed up to give him two ties and a dress shirt, as well as a couple of framed pictures of animals (Emily was fond of photography, and thought that he could use nicer things to hang up in his office). Rossi thanked them all, glancing at he last two parcels but before he could reach for one of them, Garcia halted him.

“Wait, let’s do cake first!” Rossi snorts, but doesn’t stop her as she carefully puts a chocolate cake down on the table with a bunch of candles. The older man couldn’t hide his slight smile at the very off-key version of happy birthday. 

Garcia was proud of the cake; she had made it herself, with Reid’s help, and it was all chocolatey and fudgy. The cake was dished out quickly, everyone digging in hungrily. Rossi was quickly finished, and carefully reached for the larger of the two packages, the one that was from Reid. They all grinned slightly when they saw what was inside. Reid blushed, staring down at his hands as he mumbled something about not being good at presents. The box had every season of star trek and doctor who on video, as well as a couple of books Rossi had mentioned wanting. Rossi grinned slightly at the boy, who gave an embarrassed smile back, but looked slightly proud of himself. “Thank you, all of you.” Rossi said softly, as he carefully unwrapped the last package, grinning when he pulled out the dog tags hanging from a simple chain, moving carefully to hang them around his neck before moving to look at them, grinning at the interlocking letters on the face of the first and the names of everyone on his team on the second. “Thanks, Aaron.” Aaron looked very proud of himself as he grinned at his old friend. “No problem.” 

Morgan was the one who finally broke the happy silence, reaching for a second piece of cake. Everyone laughed when Garcia swatted his hands away, chuckling in amusement. At some point they migrated to the sitting area, where Reid argued Morgan into agreeing to put the first season of Doctor Who on. Reid claimed one of the chairs and Morgan went for the other. Emily and JJ curled up next to each other on one of the couches, Garcia sitting next to them, leaving Hotch and Rossi to sit on the last couch. They watched quietly, except for Reid’s soft comments about the show every other second, just genuinely enjoying being in each other’s company. Garcia was starting to think that she should organize things like this more often.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy! I will be updating this at...well, some point in the near-ish future. (the first few chapters don't count cause they're already done). follow me on tumblr: https://ash1010101.tumblr.com


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